John i



No Model.)

I J. R. LOMAS. STRINGING DEVICE FOR PIANO PORTES.

Patented Mar 25, 1884.

N. PEIERS. Plmmlilm m her. washm xun, D. c.

IlNTTEn STATES PATENT @EErcEl JOHN R. LOMAS, OF NEIV I-IAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO B. SI-IONIN GER, OF SAME PLACE.

STR INGING DEVICE FOR PlANO-FORTES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 295,778, dated March 25, 1884.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that 1, JOHN R. LOMAS, of New Haven, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Stringing Pianos; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which IO said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in-

Figure 1, a front view of the plate of an uprightpiano; Fig. 2,ahorizontal section through the plate, frame, and sounding-board.

This invention relates to an improvement in stringing pianos.

I11 the usual construction of pianos a metal plate is made, and upon one side of. which the pins are placed for the attachment of the wires. The strain upon the wires is very great, equaling many tons on the entirc'plate. As the strain is entirely upon one side, the tendency of the strain of the strings is to warp or spring the plate toward the strain, and this warping or springing of the plate tends to throw the frame out of shape, and consequently the sound-board out of its natural plane. To obviate this difficulty to some considerable extent, the plates are made very heavy and strong; but the tendency to warp or spring the plate remains. Notwithstanding the fact that many plates are made very strong and heavy and strengthened by ribs, they will yield to a greater or less extent.

The object of my invention is to avoid this unequal strain upon the plate, and whereby a much lighter frame may be employed than in v the usual method of stringing; and my inven tion consists in the plate arranged upon one 40 side of the sound-board, the strings attached, a portion upon the side of the frame next to the sound-board and a portion upon the opposite side of the frame, the strings from the two points of attachment passing over the agraife, where they are brought into a plane substantially parallel with the plane of the plate, all as more fully hereinafter described.

In the illustration I show a plate such as employed in upright pianos, A representing Application filed September 3, 1883. (No model.) I

the plate, arranged in the usual manner upon one side of the sound-board and a little dis tance therefrom.

a represents a series of pins upon the outside of the framethat is, the side most distant from the sound-boardand b a series of pins upon the opposite sifle-that is, upon the under sideand so that the pins stand between the plate and the soundboard, and to which pins the strings are to be secured. These pins correspond in number to those usu- 6 ally employed; but instead of arranging them all upon one side, as hitherto practiced, alternate pins are placed on opposite sidesthat is, a portion of the pins a are applied to one side and intermediate pins, Z), to the oppo- 6 site side. The strings are attached to the pins in the usual manner, and run to the agraffe B on the sound-board, where they are brought into a common plane, and thence to the tuningpins C. By this arrangement of pins, as seenin 76 Fig. 2, it will be observed that the strain on the plate, coming, as it does, from opposite sides, produces a strain only in a plane parallel with the plane of the plate, without tendency to twist or warp the plate-frame or sound-board, 7 5

and because of this equalizing of the strain upon the plate I am enabled to make the plate very much lighter than where the pins are all upon one side, as in the usual construction, and thus not only avoid the derangement of 80 the instrument produced by this warping or springing of the plate, but remove or dispense with a large proportion of the weight of the instrument, and this I do without change of the frame or sound-board or the relation of 8 5 the strings to the sound-board.

I am aware that it is not broadly new to attach the ends of the strings on opposite sides of the frame; but I am not aware that strings have been attached, a portion upon one side of 0 the frame next the sound-board and a portion upon the opposite side of the frame, the strings and frame being entirely upon one side of the sound-boardcssential features of my invention.

I claim- The combination of the sound-board, the frame A, arranged in a plane parallel with the sound-board, the said frame provided with the frame inclining downward toward the [0 pins to upon its onterside andpinsb upon its unsonnd-board to the agi'aife, and those from the der side, and so as to stand between the frame pins 1) on the opposite side inclining upward and the sound-board, the said pins Z) being from the sound-board to the agi'af'fe, substanintermediate between the pins a upon the optially as described.

posite side, the agrafTe 13, arranged upon the JOHN R. LOMAS. soundboard, on the same side of the board as \Vitnesses: the plate, the strings attached to the pins 1! r J OI-IN E. EARLE,

and Z), those from the pins (6 on the one side of 1 J 0s. 0. EARLE. 

